


The Sunburn Squad

by EvilDime



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Anti-Sokovia Accords, BAMF Winter Soldiers, Civil War Fix-It, M/M, NOT Steve/Bucky, Sokovia Accords
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-19 20:06:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17008341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilDime/pseuds/EvilDime
Summary: Zemo's plan relies heavily on Tony and Steve becoming enemies, right? Yeah, that's... not going to happen.Civil War fix-it with Winter Soldier ducklings (not literal ducklings).





	1. The Sokovia Accords

"You want us to what." Tony's voice was entirely inflectionless as he looked at the UN official standing at the front of the conference room.

"Get to Wakanda, confiscate the vibranium they are withholding from the world markets and subdue resistance as needed," the man repeated, slowly as though talking to a small child.

Steve's face was still frozen in a grimace of disbelief. He forced his jaw shut with an effort and tried to ask in a calm voice: "What does King T'Challa have to say about that?" It sounded more like a death threat. Oh well.

"I assume he would disagree," the official, one Delegate Custer from Washington D.C., said, examining his nails in faked nonchalance. "Unfortunately, he was unable to attend that session or send a proxy. The vote had a clear majority, though, so his opinion in this instance is of no consequence. King T'Challa will be able to read all about it in the session transcript next week."

"And you expect us to go in before that," Steve concluded.

"A prompt execution of orders is always appreciated, yes," the man said with a wry twist of his mouth as though this were some great joke they were playing together.

Steve looked at Tony, seeing his own outrage reflected in the man's eyes.

"When we signed the Sokovia Accords, the Avengers were referred to as a special task force to keep the peace. There was no mention of promoting the economic interests of the western world and increasing the global imbalance." Natasha's voice was every bit as calm and reasonable as Steve couldn't make his own, but he still saw the frustrated anger in her rigid posture. Wanda, next to her, was emitting an alarming red glow.

"And you will not be," Custer said, dismissing their concerns with a haughty air that was sure to sit wrong with every member of their team. "Distributing the vibranium amongst those who most need it to enforce world peace is as necessary as it is political. This decision was based on purely pacifist concerns, not economic."

"Bullshit," Clint coughed.

Custer rounded on him. "Mister Barton, you are free to leave the Avengers if the terms of employment no longer agree with you."

Steve saw Clint getting ready to do just that and stood up. "Let's not be hasty. Delegate Custer, thank you for explaining this task to us. We will have to consider how best to approach it. We'll get back to you as soon as we finish strategizing."

"But-" Clint said.

"But nothing," Steve interrupted, trying to signal Clint with his eyes to shut up. Clint yelped; Steve assumed Natasha had helped to convey the message.

"Delegate, it was a pleasure," Tony said, his tone implying the opposite as he firmly showed the obnoxious man to the door.

"I will need your mission plan by tonight," the man said, still sounding haughty even as he was being bodily pushed out the door by a strong hand on his back. "We don't want to give Wakanda time to squirrel away all the goods."

"Yes, thank you," Tony said and slammed the door behind Custer.

As soon as Friday confirmed the man was out of hearing range, Steve addressed the room. "I believe we are in agreement that we don't want to be party to this repulsive deal," he began.

Nods and fierce glares answered him.

"Good," he said. "The question is now what to do about it. We have talked about this before, so this should not be news to anyone. But let me rehash the old arguments anyway.

"If we all quit the Avengers and reconvene under a new title not bound by the Sokovia Accords, we will no longer be operating within legal parameters and our range of operations will be severely limited.

"If we try to remain within the Accords but refuse this task, we will be in defiance of a legal document we signed and the outcome is unpredictable; we would, however, likely be able to stall until Wakanda has had time to do some damage control on their end.

"If we go public with this immoral task, the UN will reap a shitstorm of epic proportions, but might still have us go through with it. Also, again, we'd be in breach of contract, in this case for dispersing classified information.

"...And then there is always the _other_ option."

Thoughtful noises, narrowed eyes and some slow nods answered that statement.

"Call 'em," Tony sighed. "No matter how we end up deciding on this, it's definitely a good idea to send them in to at least warn the Wakandan king."

Steve looked at every Avenger in turn and once he got nods from each of them, reached for the laptop.

"Friday, secure connection to Tana please," Tony ordered.

A few minutes later, a familiar face showed up on Steve's laptop and he smiled. "Hey, Bucky, sorry to wake you at this hour, but I have an urgent job for you guys. Here's the thing..."

* * *

_One year earlier_

Bucky flipped through the rest of the newspaper he'd bought after his latest trip to the market. Then he sighed and began methodically packing up his little apartment. He secured his diaries first and foremost, followed by a few changes of clothing. His knives went into the backpack next while he stowed away the larger weapons on his person. Everything else he'd have to leave. He wrote a small note to drop in his landlord's mailbox on the way out, telling him to keep or sell his stuff as he saw fit.

He wouldn't be returning.

Casting a last glance around the place he'd called home for the last two months, his eyes briefly skittered over the headline that had prompted his move:

_Avengers in Agreement - Sokovia Accords to be Signed June 22nd_

His brow furrowed as he made his way across town to find himself an inconspicuous car. _Stevie, what the hell are you thinking?_

A week later, a bomb exploded in Vienna and sent the world madly scrabbling to find the Winter Soldier. But by this time, he'd already disappeared.

* * *

Bucky pulled tight on the bandage around his upper thigh with a pained grunt. Getting shot was such a messy business. Sure, his wounds healed faster than average, but until then they did slow him down and decreased mission efficiency. He could have wiped out so much more than two Hydra bases in five weeks if he didn't have to plan each attack as a solo mission.

He needed backup, dammit.

Not for the first time, he deplored the fact that Steve had signed that dumb document and made it pretty much impossible for Bucky to call on him. He didn't fancy his chances in front of an international court of justice, which was however exactly where Steve would be obliged to drag his ass if he put in an appearance.

But who else could he ask? It wasn't like there were any other super soldiers around who...

Well.

* * *

Northern Siberia was as unpleasant as ever.

Bucky hated the cold with a passion. Always had, even before falling into a frozen river miles below a speeding train, and long before he'd experienced the horror that was cryo-freeze. But those experiences certainly hadn't helped.

Bundling up more snugly in his thick, fur-lined winter cloak he reluctantly exited the sturdy old truck he'd bought in Norilsk a couple of weeks ago. He approached the main - and only - entrance carefully, but soon dropped all caution. It was obvious from the thick layer of ice that this facility had been abandoned ages ago.

It was what he'd hoped for, but to his own surprise, it still made him angry.

What a way to treat a Winter Soldier.

It was with this outrage on their behalf he addressed the first soldier he thawed. And he later suspected that seeing it in him was what actually convinced the man to _listen_. 

* * *

"Where do we go from here?" Evgenia asked.

Evgenia wasn't her original name. Bucky wasn't sure but he thought he remembered something with an 'A' at the beginning. Just as he was pretty sure Aleksandr's name was actually Josef. But since none of them remembered their own names and they were very determined to make new lives for themselves anyway, they had eventually selected new names for themselves.

It had been a stressful four months for all six of them.

Each Soldier had believed Bucky to be sincere in what he told them and had agreed not to harm him while they checked out the situation for themselves. Bucky had opened up the laptop he'd been tinkering with all along his journey and managed to actually catch a signal. He explained how the significance of the internet had skyrocketed in the last two decades before setting them lose.

A week later, they ran out of provisions and had to move back toward civilization. Mikhail and Vladimir were still undecided on where to position themselves in this new age, but even they readily climbed into the back of the truck. Anything was better than starving out here or going back to cryo until the facility's energy supply was eventually depleted.

In the rear-view mirror, Bucky watched the bunker implode behind them as they drove south.

Upon hitting Ust-Avam, they stocked up and changed their mode of transportation. Two weeks later they were in Moskow and the reality of their situation began to sink in. It took them another three weeks to decide unanimously to stay together and turn their backs on Hydra.

Now they had no mission, and Bucky knew how terrible that could be.

He wanted to give them one, he desperately needed to have them in his corner, but he wasn't sure they were ready to turn on Hydra quite so fully.

It turned out he needn't have worried.

"I say we take revenge," Pjotr declared. "They left us to rot - us, their elite soldiers! They deserve to be destroyed."

Bucky kept his cheering carefully internal as he observed the other Soliders' reactions.

Sasha and Vladimir nodded their agreement while Ghenia looked undecided. Mikhail wore his customary blank face, mouth no longer hidden by the long beard yet still giving away as little as the flinty eyes.

After long hours of debating the pros and cons, they were decided. Once the last word was spoken and all five were in agreement, they turned to Bucky as one. "What about you, James? Will you join us?"

Bucky, who'd allowed them to figure things out on their own no matter how much he wanted to interfere, finally put in his two cents.

"Call me Bucky," he began, with a smirk; and hence the concept of American nicknames rather than Russian ones was introduced to the group. "I'll say now that I am one hundred percent on board with any action against Hydra. I know you researched me, so this should not come as a surprise. What you might not know since it wasn't on the news..."

So maybe he put in his two billion dollars rather than two cents, but what's a couple of bucks between friends?

* * *

They did it.

Bucky and the other Winter Soldiers wiped Hydra off the map in a way the Howling Commandos never could.

It was glorious. Between them, they had all the spy-assassin-polito-socio-medical skills an agent could possibly wish for, and then some. What they lacked in technological and recent historical knowledge they learned with super-human speed and efficiency. None of them were regular humans any more and they were determined to own those skills.

And they _knew_ their enemy, from personal, very thorough long-term observation. 

Hydra never stood a chance.

A few times, things got tricky, but less because of competent Hydra personnel and more because the Avengers got on their trail and tried to interfere.

The first time Bucky turned around to eliminate an enemy and found himself facing Steve instead, he nearly panicked. But Jenny - Evgenia - wasn't so inhibited and dragged his unresisting ass off with her as she beat a hasty retreat.

There had been no more direct meetings after that, but Bucky had seen Steve from an uncomfortably short distance on several more missions.

Uncomfortably short and yet way too long.

Bucky missed Steve. His best friend, the little punk from Brooklyn, he missed that guy terribly.

The Captain America who'd thought it a good idea to sign the frickin' Sokovia Accords he missed a lot less.

People changed over the course of seventy years, he supposed. Hell, so had he. He looked down at his metal arm currently drenched in the blood of a deep-cover Hydra agent whom they'd missed in their initial purge. They were done with all the major bases and were just mopping up single agents here and there. They'd left a wide trail of blood and destruction across the globe. And they'd celebrated each destroyed base with veritable orgies.

Having the 'second-rate' serum, Bucky could still get drunk; and it seemed that the other soldiers also didn't have exactly the same brand of superserum Steve got. All of them could get at least a little tipsy. And with enough liters of plain vodka, they could actually get can't-get-off-my-ass-and-still-wanna-fuck-you drunk.

He didn't think his little Stevie from Brooklyn would appreciate what Bucky'd become.

And maybe, he was beginning to think, he didn't have to. It would hurt to let go of his once-in-a-lifetime, perfect, so familiar and comfortable best friend. But all things considered, maybe it was better this way. Steve would only try to see the Bucky of old in him, which would be painful for them both.

As the memories of his previous life slowly trickled back in, he had become aware of a latent sexual tension between him and Steve in the last year of their life before the war. He hadn't known it for what it was at the time, but in hindsight, he was pretty sure Steve had been crushing on him.

He also eventually remembered the relief he had felt at seeing Steve with Peggy, and - hindsight again being so embarrassingly much clearer - finally realized it wasn't just because he was glad for Steve that he had found his girl. It had been the sheer joy of knowing that their friendship would no longer be burdened with unrequited romantic feelings.

It would be pretty awkward to return to Steve now and find out that since Peggy was no longer in the picture, his friend was once again hung-up on Bucky.

Pete - Pjotr - drove on the way back to their current base, so Bucky was free to lean his head on Mike's - Mikhail's - shoulder and drop a soft kiss to the man's collarbone. Mike's hand came up by reflex to ruffle Bucky's hair affectionately.

Who'd have thought that freezing a group of super soldiers for several decades would lead to such a burning desire for warmth and connection? With the exception of Bucky, none of them had been the type to cuddle before they were iced; but when Bucky thawed them and informed them of the years they had lost, something else must have thawed right along, for they all came out craving warmth and physical closeness.

That, Bucky could relate to. Luckily for him, all of them were happy to share.

"This was the last of them," Sasha - Aleksandr, the only one amongst them who preferred to keep the Russian nick name rather than adopt an American one - stated, pulling the door of their van shut behind him. "What do we do now?"

For the longest time, the car's motor was the only sound heard inside the vehicle. Then Vlad softly stated: "I want to live somewhere warm."

* * *

Helmut stared at the crumbled remains of the secret facility in frustrated disbelief. Four days of non-stop digging through snow and solid ice and _this_ was all he got?

To make matters worse, he heard footsteps where  but for him, there shouldn't have been a soul. He turned around to see Captain America walking toward him with a grim expression. "Helmut Zemo, you are under arrest for terrorism and premeditated murder," he said. 

Even as  Helmut prepared to talk or maybe fight his way out of this, a noise made him look behind him. He looked at the raised hand of a fully suited Iron Man. 

Helmut gulped.  This looked pretty  definite.

"But I don't understand," he felt the need to whine as Captain America put the shackles on him. "How did you even find me here?"

Dark amusement danced in the man's eyes as he answered. "You challenge a uniquely capable group of enhanced soldiers and spies and you're surprised that they manage to track  you down?"

Helmut huffed in frustration. "You were supposed to be too angry at each other to cooperate in any meaningful way.  No-one expected you to just agree to sign the Accords!  Also, I still don't understand why the search for the Winter Soldier was abandoned!"

"Classified," the Captain told him with a smirk.

"But he killed your parents!"  Helmut shot at Stark in a last-ditch attempt  at doing some harm. 

Stark frowned. "You got any proof of that?"

Helmut  paid  the pile of rubble mostly buried by snow and ice  an utterly betrayed glare. 

* * *

"He could be right, you know," Steve said as he stripped out of his Captain America suit. "Bucky might have killed your parents."

"I know," Tony said,  slipping the ring back onto his finger, "and it bothers me a lot." Then he sighed. "But since we agreed that he couldn't be held accountable for what Hydra made him do, I guess I can't really go bitching about this now."

Steve smiled. "That's a very mature stance to take."

"That's the  _only_ stance I can reasonably take and keep my  husband happy," he grumbled. 

"Well, that's true," Steve admitted as he wrapped his arms around Tony from behind.  "Just like I agreed not to fight over those blasted Accords for my  husband's sake. Still not happy with that decision, but I stand by it: The Avengers need to show a unified front. And it isn't like we can't step down  _as a group_ if our position on the political chess board becomes entirely untenable." 

__

They stayed like that for a moment, Steve's naked body pressed tightly against Tony's. Tony's hands wrapped around his hips and squeezed lightly.

__

Then Tony chuckled. "Can you believe this guy actually thought he could get us to fight over this?"

__

Steve happily nuzzled his neck. "I know, crazy, right?"

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not approve of vigilantism. I believe that Democracy is always a group effort and that no one person can know what is best for everyone. If people with enhanced powers existed in the real world, I'd want them to be required to act inside the law just like everyone else. That being said, I still found myself rooting for Team Cap in Civil War. It appears that as long as it happens in a world different from my own, I can find stuff like vigilantism (or vengeance or anti-social behavior, as in Kill Bill etc.) cool and fun. *shrugs* So I'm not entirely surprised that I wrote a fic that ended up being thoroughly anti-accords.


	2. The Sunburn Squad

_Tongasoa Eto Tana_ was the title of the website. The main page displayed a picture of a huge sun hanging in a bright blue sky over tropical beaches with the hazy sketch of mountains in the background. The main menu items included "Contact the Sunburn Squad," "Sunburn Tours," "Sunny Accommodation," "Sunburn Service," "Recommended Sunburns," "Getting here," "About Antananarivo" and a language menu long enough to rival wikipedia.

"There's another commenter stating they don't actually _want_ a sunburn," Jenny said with a roll of her eyes. 

"Block 'em," Mike said casually, "it's not like we need idiot customers. We're booked solid for the  next three months anyway."

Grinning happily, Jenny followed his suggestion.

"I suppose we  _could_ have gone with 'Sunshine Brigade'," Vlad said, faking enthusiasm for the idea. 

Jenny mimed retching while Bucky just laughed. "That'd be a great way to be swarmed by old geezers."

"Look who's talking," Vlad teased.

"Hey!" Bucky mock-growled, "I lived less years than you before I got the serum, so my body is totally younger than yours!"

Vlad grinned. "So you admit that you're young and impressionable and should listen to your elders and betters?"

Bucky snorted. "Yeah, because I'm so good at heeding authority."

They all laughed.

The doorbell rang. A super-speed battle of rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock determined that it was Bucky's turn to answer the door. He swung himself over the back of the couch he'd been sitting on and made his way downstairs to the shop.

_"Miarahaba,"_ he greeted with his best charming smile. It was still as much a hit as ever and did not fail to enchant the group of young women with lovely bronze-colored skin that seemed to be bouncing on their feet with energy.  He  decided to  address them in Hindu.  _"You'd be the group from Puri?"_

Happy nods answered him.

He eyed their hiking gear and sensible clothing while checking his mental world map.  _"I'm guessing you're not here for the sunny beaches,"_ he said with a raised eyebrow.  Vlad had hashed out the details with this group, and he and Sasha would be the ones guiding their tour. 

The women laughed and confirmed that they had booked the "Extreme Mountain Sunburn."  Then one of them asked if he'd be their tour guide.  They all seemed very fond of the idea. 

_"Sadly, no,"_ Bucky denied with exaggerated disappointment. _"You'll be in the capable hands of my good friends Sasha and Vlad, though."_ He stage-whispered: _"Vlad's a vampire, you know, but don't tell him I said that."_

The women looked a bit disappointed with the news but still giggled at the joke.

Bucky took care of the business side of things, collecting the money, getting the necessary forms signed and handing out maps and info packets about the island.  After an explanation of local  _fady_ on their route, he called Sasha and Vlad down to take over. 

Ambling back up the stairs, he watched the gaggle of excited young ladies following his colleagues out the doors. "Please tell me there's no special order for this group," he asked with a frown.

"Why, you don't want to see any of those beauties snuff it?" Jenny asked as she slipped a hand into his jeans pocket.

"I don't want to  _make_ any of those beauties  snuff it," Bucky corrected. "It would be my turn this month."

"No," Jenny reassured him. "No-one ordered a hit on any of this group, so there's no need for unexpected avalanches, poisonous critters or unfortunate missteps."

"Good," Bucky said.

He liked just being a tour guide much better. They were popular enough to always be fully booked months in advance so they were never hard up for money  and could pick and choose their customers. 

And the work itself was great.  He got paid for climbing up steep  cliff-sides with crazy, adventure-hungry young Canadians, flirting his way through a group of lovely  Japanese  girls during a  shark-watching trip, seeing the gorgeous underwater life together with a curious  French couple and  practicing his Icelandic during a rafting tour. 

However, the occasional missions they still ran - be it a lone  Hydra  agent  popping up on their radar or some other disquiet they felt the need to  take care of \- required a lot more funding,  as did the obscene amount of surveillance and other tech they had stored in the back room.

Also,  two  of their number just plain loved their old jobs and needed a way to keep those skills nicely honed. So they compromised. 

It had been a bit tricky getting the word out that it was possible to book _extra services_ on their tours - they couldn't exactly advertise it on their website -, but once they worked that one out, they had a nice steady source of income from their tours supplemented by the occasional _really good_ payment for a successful covert assassination. 

Funnily enough, the rumors that people occasionally died on their tours only seemed to make the world's adventurers more eager to book them. 

Or maybe that was the rumors of how  _fit_ they all were. 

Bucky smirked.

"What's that one?"  Mike asked, looking over Jenny's shoulder. 

She clicked on the message. "Huh."

Bucky made his way over to them. "What is it?"

"We have a special service request from... the Avengers??"

Bucky's smirk dropped. "Let me see that."

* * *

"Guys, business meeting!"

Some of the tourists shrieked, while the rest of them just gaped at Bucky, Evgenia, Pjotr and Mikhail completely star-struck.

Bucky couldn't fault them for it; they  _had_ just appeared over the ledge of a fifty foot drop. (It was the quickest route, so sue them.) "Excuse us, ladies," he said, smiling widely at them all, "but I need to borrow your tour guides for a few minutes to talk shop."

"O-of course," the apparent leader of the group said.

Bucky could feel their disbelieving stares following the six of them as they made their way further up the mountain - climbing up the sheer cliff at a pace a regular human would be hard-pressed to match, and without any kind of safety gear.

No matter how often he did it, Bucky still thought it was both terrifying and exhilarating.

Settling down at the top, they quickly explained the situation to Vlad and Sasha.

"...so the UN doesn't allow them to go in and prevent a likely genocide and now the Avengers are asking _us_ for help?"

Bucky bashfully ducked his head. "Steve knows I used to be a good guy."

"But how do they know who and where we are?" Sasha asked in an angry tone.

"Stark," Bucky said. "If he's half the genius his father was, he'll have figured out ways to gather all the information he could ever need off the internet by the time he was thirty. And the way I hear it told, he makes his old man look like a toddler his mamuchka dropped on his head."

"Then why haven't they already come and gotten us? You, at least,  they know of and have actively hunted in the past." Jenny looked at Bucky in concern. 

"That is... a valid point," Bucky conceded.

That's when  Bucky's silenced phone started ringing in his pocket and decided to accept the  incoming call from an unknown  number on its own.  He withdrew the thing in time to hear Steve's voice emerging from the speaker. 

"Bucky," Steve  said in a low voice, "you  free to talk?"

"Got the Squad with me," Bucky said, "otherwise yes."

"Great," Steve said, sounding relieved. "I did mean to talk to all of you."

"What's up?" Bucky said, pretending his heart didn't do funny things at hearing his old friend's voice after so long. No matter how much Steve had changed when he became Captain America, and no matter how little Bucky could understand certain decisions he'd made since waking up in this century, Steve would always remain the boy who'd defined Bucky's entire childhood. His north star. It was good to hear him sounding well, and happy to talk to Bucky.

Bucky's fingers twitched at his side until Pete took his right hand in his own. Bucky squeezed tightly, finding comfort in the touch.

"I assume you got our request," Steve said questioningly.

"Yeah," Bucky agreed. "We're in the middle of a team meeting to figure out what to do about it."

"Oh," Steve said. He sounded a bit disappointed, which made Bucky righteously mad.

"Well excuse us for being cautious!" he spat. "For all we know, you're doing this to keep us distracted while your buddies at the UN get into position to drop us where we stand."

"You mean you haven't heard...?" Steve's voice was mildly disbelieving.

"Heard what?" he barked, curious and a bit shaken at Steve's wondering tone.

"Bucky, you aren't being hunted anymore. Tony and I found the guy who blew up that place in Vienna, and the wrongful accusation gave us enough fuel to push through a pardon for whatever you did while Hydra had you."

Bucky was too stunned to answer, so Jenny jumped into the breach. "Those are nice words, Captain Rogers, but what proof do we have? And what about the rest of us?"

This time, there was silence on the other end, too, until Steve's voice returned. "Tony's just sent the relevant paperwork and news coverage pertaining to the pardon to your work computer. Sorry for hacking, he does that sort of thing." Steve seemed more amused than truly put out and Bucky felt a suspicion grow inside him at the sound. He knew that tone.

"Steven Grant Rogers," he said in his best Sarah Rogers impersonation - then completely ruined it by continuing with: "you _dog_! You snagged yourself a millionaire!"

He was so sure of his words he felt like he could see Steve's blush even across the oceans currently separating them.

"Spill," he continued gleefully. "Did he proposition you or did you do the asking?"

"Uh," came the intelligent answer.

Suddenly, a new voice joined the conversation. "He actually asked," Stark happily announced. "Said he just watched another friend _fall_ and once again lost his chance to admit his feelings, only this time it wasn't _really_ too late yet." Sounding a lot less happy, Stark continued: "You're not going to steal him from me, are you?"

Bucky huffed out a surprised laugh. "Nah," he then said. "I know Stevie had a thing for me back in the day, but I'm glad he's over it. As for me, I've got all the company I could wish for."

"Yeah, about that," Stark said, trying for business-like but failing to hide his curiosity. "Who are your colleagues? We've never heard of any of them."

"That's because none of us officially exist," Sasha joined the conversation.

"You mean you got fake identities?" Stark asked.

"Something like that," Sasha said dismissively. Stark seemed to accept that and started to speak up again when there was a sharp indrawn breath at their end of the line.

"Stevie?" Bucky asked.

"Oh my god," he heard Steve's shaken voice from the other end, "they made _more_ of you?"

Bucky smiled grimly. "Got it in one, champ."

Steve sounded heart-broken. "Anyone I know?"

Bucky huffed out a surprised laugh. "No, Stevie. No-one as old as us. The others actually volunteered, and it was several decades after our time."

"Yes, grandpa," Jenny's teasing voice reached his ear, "tell us a story about the good old days why don't you?"

"Quiet or I'll spank you, naughty girl," Bucky parried.

"That… didn't sound like a threat," Stark's voice observed from the phone.

"Who said it was?" Bucky grinned.

"And you're calling _me_ a dog." Bucky felt like he could hear the eye-roll in Steve's tone. "But Bucky… If they volunteered…"

_"Steve,"_ Bucky said with an eye-roll of his own. "I'm not fighting for Hydra anymore, and neither are they, alright?" 

There was silence at the other end and Bucky just knew he wouldn't get away without an explanation. Looking around at his team, he saw some caution, but also a hell of a lot of trust.

"Listen, Stevie. Hydra stored them in cryo and forgot about them. It took me an hour to hack through the ice covering the bunker in Siberia where they were stored, and I think their generator had only a few years left before they'd just have… stopped. Not even with a bang, but with a drowning gurgle, if you know what I mean."

He let that sink in for a moment. Bucky knew Steve had seen a cryo chamber at one of the Hydra bases and understood that even super soldiers like them wouldn't have gotten out of that on their own. He also had a sneaking suspicion that after crashing his plane in the ice, Steve was not a huge fan of icy cold water, might even have a fear of drowning.

Bucky knew he wasn't playing fair. But then again, he wasn't lying.

"You better believe they had a bone to pick with Hydra."

Steve was making some incoherent noise and there was a sort of rustling that Bucky hoped for Stark's sake meant the man was hugging and comforting the emotional big lug.

"So that's us," Vlad took over. "What about you? What guarantees can you give us that this deal is on the up-and-up?"

Steve sounded so earnest when he said: "I'd never do anything to hurt Bucky."

Bucky wanted to believe him, he really did. But. "You signed those blasted Accords."

After a short explosion of sound, they were treated to five minutes of what Bucky couldn't call anything other than a lover's spat. He saw Sasha and Vlad exchange disbelieving glances. "And that's the famous Captain America and Iron Man?" Sasha whispered, while Vlad shrugged.

Bucky smirked at them. "Steve's always been hot-headed, and I don't think he could ever be with anyone who just said 'Yes dear'. Of course there's going to be _words."_

The two Avengers squabbled for a moment longer until both suddenly broke off with twin pained squawks. A sharp female voice lashed out at them, putting an abrupt end to their discussion. Bucky shivered when he realized who the voice belonged to.

"Зимные Солдаты," the Black Widow greeted them. "I am not pleased to know that the rumors about the continuation of that particular line of experimentation are true." Bucky tensed and felt his team go into high alert beside him. "However," Romanova continued with a sigh, "you might be just what we need right now."

Bucky listened in growing amusement as the fierce Black Widow he had learned to respect through the course of several memorable, hostile encounters cut down both of the Avengers' leaders in her scathing report on recent politics. Apparently, Steve and Stark had compromised in the matters of the Accords and one Bucky Barnes, meaning that Steve agreed to sign the document while Stark helped clear the - at that point - only known Winter Soldier's name.

While the UN supervision may have seemed like a sensible course of action at first, the council had very quickly proven to be as fickle and unfair as any other ruling body, just like Steve had always feared. Romanova never disclosed her own thoughts on the matter, yet still managed to make Steve look like a stubborn idiot for not wanting to sign the Accords as much as she painted Stark as a gullible clown for ever believing they might be a good idea. Bucky had no idea how, but she sold both underhanded insults equally well, even though they implied diametrically opposed views on the matter.

The conversation gave them all a lot to think. When they got home that night, each member of the Sunburn Squad (except for those still out with the tourist group) withdrew to their separate bedrooms and for once, the master bedroom remained empty. While the others presumably engaged in fact-finding missions about the Avengers' position and the veracity of their words, trying to figure out the best course of action, Bucky closed his eyes and remembered Steve's voice: The warmth in it when he talked to Bucky, the happiness at having Tony Stark in his life, the absolute conviction when he talked politics. It had been good talking to Steve again, and in a way, it felt like very little had changed between them. 

_I guess seventy years isn't such a long time, after all._


	3. Keep Calm and Carry On

Wakanda was only their second task from the Avengers, and to say that King T'Challa was surprised to see the Winter Soldier aka James Buchanan Barnes show up and warn him that the Avengers were about to invade his country to steal their vibranium on official UN orders would be a bit of an understatement. However, it never hurt a man to be cautious; two days later when the Avengers did show up, they found very little of actual worth. They returned to the UN empty-handed - and with an enraged King T'Challa in tow who proceeded to slaughter the council's current leaders for trying to rob a friendly nation. The Sunburn Squad, however, received a sizable donation for their great services from a satisfied Wakandan customer who preferred to stay anonymous.

Life was good for the former Winter Soldiers. They got to live adventurous lives, enjoy the sun and occasionally hone their skills on special orders.

Then, one day, a customer came in that had Vlad's smile falter for a moment as he greeted them. As soon as he got the man settled in his lodgings, he called a team meeting.

Two hours later, Steve Rogers's phone rang.

"Rogers," the man said, his frown at the unknown number clear in his tone.

"Hey, Stevie," Bucky said with an audible smirk in his own voice. "How's things?"

"Bucky!" Bucky flinched at the volume of Steve's enthusiastic greeting. One might think the guy was still hung up on him even though his marriage with Stark had become public knowledge by now and, as an extremely annoying consequence, they were _showing_ their happy couple-ness at every occasion.

"Glad to hear your voice, pal!" Steve went on. "Things here are fine, we're all doing good. How are you?" Concern immediately entered Steve's voice as he realized Bucky had never called him before. "Are you alright? Is everyone doing well? Do you need-"

"Steve," Bucky interrupted him, "please do shut up for a moment and listen, will you?"

"Yes," Steve said immediately, "I will, of course. I'm sorry Bucky, I just-"

"Stevie?"

"Alright, yes," Rogers said, chastised. "Shutting up now."

Bucky took a moment to glare at Pjotr who was barely holding in his snickers at the exchange, then asked, cautiously: "How do you feel about Doctor Banner?"

"Bruce?" Steve asked, startled. This was clearly not the topic he'd been expecting. "Great. I mean, I haven't seen him since Sokovia, but he's a really swell guy and damn smart, at that."

"So," Bucky went on, still a bit unsure of his question, "you guys would be opposed to seeing the Hulk eliminated?"

"Define eliminated," the suddenly sharp voice of Captain America ordered.

"Killed," Bucky clarified. "By which I mean all the way dead, not just-"

"-mostly dead," Steve finished for him with an audible smirk. It seemed that now he knew Bucky was still alive and well somewhere in the world, Steve Rogers was finally ready to embrace this new century and all the fun pictures it had to offer.

Bucky grinned at his team, then went on in a more serious tone. "To clarify: Despite the damage he has done in the past, and despite the danger he still presents, the Avengers would not want Doctor Banner killed to eliminate the Hulk."

"No!" Steve barked. "Of course not, he's a friend! …Please tell me you haven't hurt him."

Bucky snorted. "Not yet we haven't. But we sure have been paid to try. Not that our client told us it was the _Hulk_ he was ordering a hit on. I mean, we could probably still manage, but -"

"Do you know where Bruce is?" Steve asked, his voice urgent.

"Yeah, we sure do," Bucky replied. "A certain Mister Ruffalo – odd choice of cover name if you ask me, sounds like a character from a children's book – just walked in the door this afternoon to participate in a week of mountain top meditation. That sound like something your friend Bruce would do? The face is his, anyway."

Steve pondered that for a moment. "Not so much climbing up the mountain, but meditating? Sure, he does that a lot. Keeps the Other Guy calm. Speaking of, please try not to aggravate the man. I have no idea how he's been, and if he's seeking out remote locations for a course in meditation, that might not be the best sign."

"Noted," Evgenia cut in.

"Oh, hi," Steve said. "Is everyone there?"

"Listening," Vlad said.

"Trying to figure out if Bucky's grandpa friend is trying to bullshit him," Pjotr expounded.

"I'd never!" they heard Steve protest, outraged.

"Relax, Stevie," Bucky told the spluttering voice at the other end of the line. "You know this and I know it, but discarded Winter Soldiers do not trust easily. Give it some time, alright?"

Steve grumbled a bit, but Bucky didn't give him much time to further that particular discussion. "So," he said, "back to the topic at hand. Someone ordered a hit on a member – former member? – of the Avengers behind their backs. Normally, when we check up on a target's background and don't agree with their murder, we take the money and eliminate the client instead."

Steve made an unhappy noise, presumably at Bucky's nonchalant talk of murder, but didn't comment.

"In this case," Bucky continued, "that won't work for us so well."

"Why is that?" Steve asked, gladly providing the spell-bound audience Bucky needed to spin his tale.

"You see, when we followed the client's chain of decoys and sock puppets back to the source" - Bucky paused dramatically before the big reveal and he could just about _hear_ Steve's eye-roll – "we ended up with a name right in the upper ranks of the US Army."

There was a sharp indrawn breath. "Ross?"

"The one and only," Bucky agreed. They'd done their research, and that name was bound to come up in anything associated with the Hulk.

There was an impressive string of curses from the phone. Steve had never had need for a spy's skill with languages, but he delved into his limited supply of German and French when English no longer seemed to satisfy his needs.

"You should learn Russian," Alexandr dryly told him, startling Steve into breaking off with a laugh.

 _"Maybe I should,"_ he said – in Russian.

The Winter Soldiers looked at each other. "Huh," Bucky made. "How did this happen?"

"When your best friend returns from the dead and you're told he apparently speaks Russian more fluently than English, what would you do?" Steve asked, a bit sardonically like this should have been obvious.

And yeah, okay. Bucky could see where he was coming from.

"I studied every night for two weeks and then asked Natasha to help me perfect my pronunciation."

 _That's Steve Rogers for you,_ Bucky thought fondly, _stubborn as fuck and ready to give anything for the people he – ugh. Never mind._

Bucky pushed the undistinguished, mushy feelings aside and focused again. "So, what are we gonna do?"

* * *

One week later, Evgenia led the group back down the mountain. They seemed mostly calm and relaxed and the team was pleased to see that Jenny had worked her usual magic. Unlike usual, she asked to speak to each member of the group separately for a moment before they left. Most of them got a few words of advice on their technique or just a fortune cookie style scrap of wisdom to take home. Mister Ruffalo went into the back room last, though, and for him things went a bit differently.

"Mister Ruffalo," Jenny said sweetly, "please have a seat."

The man sat, still looking calm and relaxed.

"You worked very well up there," Jenny began as though this was just another farewell talk and she could see him relaxing further. He trusted her as an instructor and had taken really well to her style of teaching. It was with complete honesty that she told him: "I am really sorry that I now have to take away some of the calm you acquired during the week."

He sat up a bit straighter, not worried yet but unsure what was going on.

Jenny let her sadness show on her face. "Someone wants you dead," she said bluntly. "It isn't me and neither I nor my team will have any part in harming you, but we feel you need to be informed of this. Your team agrees."

"My team?" Ruffalo asked, any trace of relaxation gone from his voice and posture.

"The Avengers," Jenny clarifies. "As far as I am aware, you never officially left. They still consider you one of their own."

Bruce Banner's clenched fists trembled at his sides. "How do you know this?"

Bucky opened the door at the back of the room and stepped inside. "Steve and I stayed in touch," he said with a smirk, dramatically oversimplifying the situation. It sounded great that way, though, and they needed to make Bruce trust them fast, before his pulse went up into the green range of the spectrum.

"Barnes," Banner said. "This, I really didn't expect when I signed up for a mountaintop meditation retreat."

"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition," Bucky quoted at him and managed to startle a laugh out of the anxious man. He used the broken tension to get his message across. "Someone's out to get you and we'd like to prevent that. Will you work with us and stay here a few days longer? You need to make a quick decision before the rest of your group gets suspicious."

Banner gave him and Jenny each a long, searching look.

"If we actually wanted you dead, we wouldn't have told you," Bucky threw in casually.

Banner snorted, but his tense shoulders slumped. He looked a bit defeated, but also warily curious when he said: "Suppose I stayed here, what would you have me do?"

Bucky sat down and gave Banner a smirk that strangely didn't send the man running for the hills. He supposed knowing that the Hulk was very hard to kill helped Banner stay calm in all manner of strange situations. "First, you'll have to decide whether Bruce Banner should live or die…"

* * *

"…It is with the greatest regret that I stand here today informing you of the death of Doctor Bruce Banner, a visionary in his field and a valiant defender of our world against the alien forces in our time of need. After the tragic events last year in Sokovia, Mister Banner took his leave from the Avengers to regain his equilibrium. It appears that while climbing the wild mountains of Madagascar, an unforeseen eruption of poisonous gas exploded from underneath his feet and killed Doctor Banner instantly. The scientific community will mourn this great loss, as will the group known to us as the Avengers…"

Steve listened to the PR person rambling on. It was a nice speech, but he had better things to do than mourn a not quite dead fellow Avenger.

"Ross," Tony said as Steve let his hand fall heavily on the shoulder of the man failing to suppress his self-satisfied smirk during a fucking elegy.

The smirk vanished the moment the man turned to find Steve and Tony standing right behind him. "That's _Mister Secretary of State_ to you, Stark!"

Steve's eyes narrowed. "That's _Doctor_ Stark to you, sir. And I doubt you'll be allowed to carry the title of Secretary much longer."

"Oh?" Ross said, acting unimpressed, "and why would that be?"

Several reporters had noticed the altercation and were focusing on them now. Steve allowed himself a grim smile but left the talking to Tony. It was what Tony did best, right after sciencing, of course.

"Well," Tony said, acting pleasant and completely unconcerned, "since all the present Avengers signed the Sokovia Accords, even the ones who weren't there to sign at the time are considered special forces of the UN at the moment. As such, you have ordered an unlicensed agency to kill a US special officer under international supervision. For very personal reasons, I might add. I do believe that the US cannot allow you to maintain a position of authority if we want to keep our credibility with the rest of the world." He turned towards the cameras and raised an eyebrow. "Or what do you think?"

Amidst the flashlights and reporters hastily babbling into their mikes, there were a thunder of questions thrown Tony's way.

"Mister Stark, are you implying Doctor Banner's accident was in fact a murder?"

Steve took that one. "That's what we're saying, yeah."

Gasps and more flashlights went off. While Ross was left spluttering, everyone ignored him in favor of further questioning the two Avengers.

"Do you have any proof of those claims?"

"Let me see…" Tony murmured, then hit a button on his phone. The large screen behind the PR person, who had by now given up on his speech and was following the impromptu press conference along with everybody else, stopped displaying the face of the – presumably – late Doctor Banner and switched instead to print-outs of the – presumably – secure email communication negotiating the hit on Doctor Banner, along with a detailed analysis of fake names used and how they related back to one Secretary Ross.

"You know," Steve said in a conversational tone, "I heard you had a new high-security prison built somewhere out in the ocean, to keep _particularly dangerous_ people safely locked up. I assume you were thinking of people with powers like mine or Doctor Banner's, but with the political climate being what it is? I think a US army general trying to get one of the Avengers killed qualifies, don't you agree?"

Ross's scream of rage could be heard live on several dozen cameras.

In a nicely appointed living room somewhere in the busiest part of Antananarivo, Bruce Banner watched the Squad's TV screen with a large, contented smile.

Bucky sent Steve a text. – _Guess that's the start of Mister Ruffalo's freedom. Will you miss him? –_

Steve replied immediately. – _I_ _will, though not as much as I always miss you. –_

Bucky rolled his eyes. – _Sap. –_

– _Guilty as charged, –_ Steve wrote back. He paused, then wrote: _– I'm glad you've still got my back. –_

Bucky's face softened. He didn't have to think before responding. – _I gotcha covered, punk. 'til the end of the line. –_

  
  


~ The End ~

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Thanks for reading! If you have a minute, let me know what you did and didn't like. Concrit welcome! : )


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